Technical Assistance Providers. (1) Technical Assistance Providers must have the appropriate knowledge, resources, and skills necessary to support the delivery of technical assistance for grant applications. These skills may include completing the train-the-trainer, passing a pre-training knowledge assessment, and meeting the linguistic needs of the community served.
Technical Assistance Providers. In the past two years, HealthGov in-house national and regional specialists, together with CHDs (in particular, DOH Reps), PHO staff, and consultants, provided assistance to field operations in PIPH/AOP, CSR planning, and local health policy development. The role of in-house specialists was necessary because most of the required technical assistance was new and still had to be developed (such as PIPH, AOP, MNCHN grant, CSR forecasting and planning based on evolving MNCHN policy development). These TA areas are not readily suitable for third parties (such as local universities, NGOs or consulting firms) without building their capacity first. However, the need to deliver the TA fast to catch up with LGU and DOH schedules meant that the time for training and capacity building of outside parties was limited. However, XxxxxxXxx has collaborated and trained government partners directly involved in and responsible for the preparation of the above-mentioned plans, in particular the CHDs (including DOH Reps) and PHOs. These principal technical assistance providers (TAPs) were oriented and trained on a range of skills and subjects, such as the facilitation of MIPH, PIPH, AOP formulation and CSR planning. In the second year, consultants were hired for very specialized tasks, e.g., CHLSS in Misamis Occidental, Negros Oriental, and South Cotabato; participatory monitoring and evaluation in Bukidnon; and local health policy development in Davao del Sur. Institutions were tapped to provide support to province-wide data collection and processing efforts, e.g., MUCEP for CHLSS in Misamis Oriental. To increase the categories and number of TAPs the following action were originally planned: • Regular updating of HealthGov regional and national specialists on new developments and in response to new needs and demands from the field; • More organized TOT of CHD and PHO staff after DOH guidelines (administrative orders or orientations) have been issued; • Identification of additional individual consultants; • More organized identification of institutional TAPs, based on an assessment of the technical areas where they can play a useful and sustainable role in supporting the health programs of the LGUs. Recently DOH recognized the need to delegate much of the duties and responsibilities in assisting LGUs in the local implementation of the reform process to the CHDs. The technical assistance required by LGUs, as evidenced by the work of USAID CAs in the field, involves a wide range ...
